A father's plea: `Stop the killing'

He lost daughter, but not his hope for peace

February 11, 2007|By Joel Greenberg, Tribune foreign correspondent

ANATA, West Bank — The death of Abir Aramin, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl, after a stone-throwing clash with Israeli Border Police in this village last month would have likely become just another grim statistic in a relentless conflict, had her father not reacted by publicly calling for peace, not revenge.

Bassam Aramin, 38, is a founder of Combatants for Peace, a group of Israeli reserve soldiers and former Palestinian prisoners who have joined forces to call for reconciliation and a negotiated solution to the conflict between their peoples.

Jailed as a teen for 7 years for organizing an armed cell, Aramin has spent recent months visiting schools across Israel with his Israeli colleagues to bring a joint message of non-violence and conciliation, a message he says he will now deliver with greater resolve.

"I will not lose my way because I lost my girl," Aramin said in an interview. "I will only become more determined. We want to protect the children of both peoples. We have no alternative but to stop the killing."

Abir Aramin was mortally wounded Jan. 16 near her school after boys threw stones at a passing Border Police jeep and rubber-coated bullets were fired from the vehicle, according to witnesses.

Police said the jeep was in the area to safeguard work on Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank, although construction in Anata has already been completed.

Border Police patrols in the village are regularly met with stone-throwing, residents said.

A police spokesman said an investigation found that Abir had been hit by a blunt object but that a final conclusion regarding the cause of death had not been reached. The spokesman said officers had used "riot control equipment," including rubber-coated bullets, to disperse the stone-throwers.

An Israeli pathologist retained on behalf of the Aramin family who observed the police autopsy and reviewed CT scans of the girl's head, concluded that the size and shape of her wound strongly suggested that she was struck by a rubber-coated bullet, though the possibility that she was hit by a stone could not be ruled out.

Michael Sfard, a lawyer from the Israeli human-rights group Yesh Din who is representing the family in the case, said he had given the authorities a rubber-coated bullet recovered at the scene. He said such bullets appeared to have been fired in violation of orders that prohibit shooting them at close range, and when the Border Police, traveling in a protected jeep, were not in danger.

After the incident, as Abir lay wounded in an Israeli hospital, the Israeli members of Combatants for Peace kept a vigil with her father, accompanying him in meetings with doctors and in the end to Israel's forensic institute to claim her body.

"This was not another activity of the group," said Avichay Sharon, an Israeli member of the organization. "Bassam is a friend, and we mobilized for him as you would for any friend, regardless of whether he's Jewish, Arab or Muslim."

Aramin asked that his Israeli colleagues avoid condolence calls during the mourning period, concerned that they would become the target of hostility in his village. Killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces are often followed by angry funerals and calls for revenge.

"I don't want revenge, because it won't change anything, and it won't bring my daughter back," Aramin said. "We've had revenge for decades, and look where we are. I want the soldier responsible to stand trial, so other soldiers will know that there is a price to be paid for taking a life."

Sharon said the death of his friend's daughter provided tragic reinforcement for the message of Combatants for Peace, whose members have spoken to students and community groups, advocating an end to violence and a negotiated settlement to the conflict.

"This brought home how urgent it is to put an end to this cycle of bloodshed," he said.